1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for sending data to an output device, such as a printer, which is connected through a bidirectional interface.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a printer which is connected to a host computer through an interface (e.g., a Centronics interface) analyzes input data from the host computer and develops bit-map data as output data of, e.g., a laser beam printer. The printer then scan-exposes a photosensitive drum with a laser beam modulated on the basis of this developed data, thereby outputting image data.
In the case of a printer with an emulation function, a plurality of printer control language systems (command systems) can be processed; the printer can execute printing while switching an emulation mode and a native mode in accordance with application programs that a user executes. The printer of this type has switches for switching programs for interpreting the printer control languages and card slots for giving switching designation.
The printer of the above type, however, has no function of checking compatibility of a language environment, which is preset in the printer, before starting printing. Therefore, if printing is started by transferring print data to the printer notwithstanding that the language environment preset in the printer differs from the language environment that an application has set, unexpected results are printed.
As described above, under a print system environment in which printer control languages are selectively used (i.e., an environment in which a plurality of printer drivers can be selectively executed), a printer control language to be used is determined in accordance with a hardware environment set by a user. Therefore, if the printer control language environments of a host computer and a printer do not match each other, a printing failure occurs because there is no relieving means for obtaining matching. When the printer is located apart from the host computer and print data with a large number of pages is processed, a user does not notice the situation at once, resulting in a serious problem of waste of a paper resource due to unnecessary printing.
In addition, in switching between the language environments as described above, if a memory environment is freed, the contents (forms, user fonts, and the memory setting of a RAM) set in a memory of a printer are erased by rewriting. Therefore, even when the same language environment is selected again, not only the information about the forms, the user fonts, and the like but the memory map of the RAM cannot be reproduced correctly. This makes it impossible to ensure the printing under the environmental status before the switching.
If, on the other hand, the memory environment is controlled in such a manner as to keep the status before the language environments are switched, a memory space usable after the switching is rather limited. This significantly decreases the recording efficiency in the environment after the switching.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide an information processing apparatus capable of determining matching between an environmental setting status and a printer connected through a bidirectional interface and automatically selecting a printer driver which is compatible to the printer control language data of the printer, thereby obtaining the matching between of a printer environment and the printer that is connected to allow communications and to provide an information processing apparatus capable of managing registration of printer environment information set in a memory of a printer connected through a bidirectional interface by monitoring the environment switching status with respect to the printer, thereby managing the printer environment for each language that is set once with good reproducibility with respect to the printer.
In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising acquiring means for acquiring information stored in a memory of a printing device connected through a bidirectional interface, and selecting means for selecting a printer driver corresponding to the information acquired by the acquiring means from a plurality of printer drivers on the basis of the information.
In addition, in order to achieve the above object of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising storing means for acquiring and storing data stored in a memory of a printing device connected through a bidirectional interface, and transferring means for transferring the data stored in the storing means in order to store the data in a memory of the printing device when the printing device executes processing on the basis of data different from the data stored in the storing means.